Feeding technology to people one spoonful at a time.
My personal reviews, opinions, views on cutting edge technology and gadgets

Thursday, May 03, 2007

T-mobile's Wi-fi dual mode cell phones to roll out..

Todays technology journal of WSJ had an article on T-mobiles nationwide roll out of its hotspot @ home service this summer..this program was in trials in seattle and last I heard not doing well..they were having issues with the call handoff between cellular and Wi-Fi network..which according to the article has been ironed out...(for you non geeks this service would let you make and receive calls over their cellular network but as soon as you came in rage of T-mobile's wifi Hotspots like at starbucks the call would automatically switch over to the Wi-Fi network-saving your cellular minutes and increasing the quality of the call) the service would cost about an extra $20 which is a bit high I think..$10 would make think twice about switching from cingular..another feature of the plan thats not being rolled out until later for which I would pay the $20 is being able to use your home landlines and be able to get your cell phone calls answered on your landline when at home and not use your minutes.. I can do this today well sort of..my nokia e61 has a VoIP client but its not a smooth handoff.. I have it set so that the wifi kicks in when Im at home but I have a separate number through truphone..so not the same thing at all...I cant wait to see how this plays out.. I must say T-mobile will gain some market share through this new strategy..already popular with their myFaves plan and the plans to also roll out a 3G network.. this would also mean that they would have to carry some very cool dual mode cell phones like the rumored Nokia N95 to come to tmobile.. so for that they get two thumbs up and maybe my business later this year